IBM's supercomputer Watson has trounced its two competitors in a televised show pitting human brains against computer bytes. After a three night marathon on the quiz show Jeopardy, Watson emerged victorious to win a $1million (£622,000) prize. The computer's competitors were two of the most successful players ever to have taken part in Jeopardy.But in the end their skill at the game was no match for Watson.

From gameshow stage to the "world stage" - using technology to solve real life issues

Althought IBM's Watson has emerged as champion of Jeopardy its more then just winning a competition. The amount of data that is out there which can be used to solve
medical, transport or financial issues, for example, is possible through
the Deep QA technology of Watson. The win against "the humans" demonstrated that computers can contribute more to society by improving our world - not take over it. All you have to do is just "ask it" right Watson?

BBC writes:

"The technology behind Watson has the ability to scan and analyse information from many more resources than a human can in a short period of time, potentially aiding doctors in diagnosing patients quickly."We can transform the way that health care professionals accomplish everyday tasks by enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently," said Dr John E Kelly III, senior vice president and director of IBM research."

In its “Jeopardy!” project, I.B.M. researchers were tackling a game that requires not only encyclopedic recall, but the ability to untangle convoluted and often opaque statements, a modicum of luck, and quick, strategic button pressing.

IBM also made an announcement during yesterday's match that they have signed a research agreement with speech recognition firm Nuance
Communications, to "explore, develop and commercialise" the Watson
computing system's advanced analytics capabilities in the health care
industry. (reported by BBC)

Solving transport issues:

An article on Mass Transit website called "I’ll Take Smarter Transportation for $1,000" (by Gerry Mooney) explains how Watson technology could be used to solve transportation issues.

Gerry Mooney writes, "Even as commuters, we experience information overload. Today we can look
through publically available transit schedules, where road work is
happening, real-time updates from traffic sites, travel providers and
search engines. On top of that, any number of social media tools like
Facebook, Twitter or Roadify can report on how traffic is at a moment in
time. A Watson-like technology could be integrated with all of these
streams of structured and unstructured data and into the transportation
network, connected to road sensors, predictive analytics systems, public
transit and more. This could inform a commuter’s decision on what route
to take or what the best connection would be to make given what train
or bus will arrive next.